BMJ Study on Online Abortion Services “has no credibility”

Northern Ireland’s leading pro-life group Precious Life say there is no credibility to a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), on research from the University of Texas of women in Northern Ireland and the Republic, which claimed that so-called “online abortion services” can offer an alternative to unsafe methods of abortion.

Director of Precious Life Bernadette Smyth said ““First and foremost, abortion remains a criminal offence in Northern Ireland. These despicable websites that are inciting women to break the law and kill their unborn children must be investigated and shut down.”

“The ‘data’ for this research paper was facilitated by the widely discredited ‘Women on Web’, an organisation which sells illegal abortion drugs online and incites vulnerable and desperate women to break the law.”

“There is no such thing as a 'safe' abortion. Whether illegal or legal, the after-effects of abortion are the same. Since 2001, at least twenty-two women worldwide have died from fatal complications including haemorrhage, toxic shock, sepsis, organ failure, and ruptured ectopic pregnancy following an early abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol.”

“For researchers at University of Texas to rely on so-called ‘evidence’ provided by Women on Web is laughable. It is preposterous that anyone seeking to publish research of any credibility would rely on an organisation so steeped in lies and deceit. No one knows where Women on Web get the abortion drugs, no one knows what is in the drugs, and women who go online and purchase these illegal abortion drugs from this site are not informed of the very serious risks involved.”

The study published in the BMJ also claimed that rates of adverse effects after using abortion drugs were low.

Ms Smyth continued, “The BMJ have no credibility when they ignore studies from India which found that use of abortion pills increases maternal deaths.” [ see http://www.ejmanager.com/fulltextpdf.php?mno=234894 and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4347129/ ]

“Pro-abortion activists who sell abortion pills on the internet, who instruct women via hotlines to buy and use abortion pills, who illegally dispense abortion pills to women who are without access to medical care, need to read the data from India and stop putting the lives and health of pregnant women in Ireland at risk by promoting self-use of abortion pills.”

Bernadette Smyth concluded, “Women in crisis pregnancies need to be fully informed of the dangers of these abortion drugs. Women in crisis pregnancies need real help and support. Abortion is not the answer.”